Air heating apparatus and system



Jan. 4, 1944. POWERS 2,338,356

AIR HEATING APPARATUS AND SYSTEM Filed 001;. 28, 1939 Patented Jan. 4,1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE AIR HEATING APPARATUS AND SYSTEM MiltonA. Powers, Detroit, Mich.

Application October 28, 1939, Serial No. 301,837

' '7 Claims.

This invention relates to methods and means for heating and circulatingair in groups of interconnected rooms such as are set apart as a unit ina large building or such as constitute the living quarters of a smallhouse. My invention is concerned particularly with the heating andventilation of a group of rooms, all or nearly all on the same floorlevel, through the use of air as the distributing and heating medium.

In recent years the trend in low cost housing has been towards theconstruction of compact homes consisting of living room, kitchen, bathand one or two bedrooms, with little or no basement and substantially noattic space, and usually with all rooms on the same floor. .During thisperiod there also have appeared upon the market several types of oilburning space heaters designed to replace coal stoves. Like the latter,most oil stoves are of the convection type where cool air passesupwardly over the heated surfaces and stratifies, so to speak, in deadlayers that are warm near the ceiling and progressively colder in thedirection of the floor. The room in which the heater is disposed, orinto which it discharges if located below the floor level, becomesoverheated, even though the doors to the other rooms are opened toeffect some circulation, and the other rooms remain too cold. Thiscondition can be improved somewhat, but inadequately, by employing a fanto augment the circulation. In order to obtain substantially uniformroom temperatures in homes of the type under discussion, and in olderhouses having no piping system connected with a hot water or steamfurnace, it has been necessary to connect the air heater directly to theseveral rooms by individual ducts and also, usually, to provide cold airreturn ducts. All of this is too expensive for the type of home underconsideration and, moreover, most of them lack the basement necessary toensure proper air flow upward.

Therefore, it is the primary object 01' the present invention to devisea heating method or system, and appropriate apparatus of low initial andinstallation costs, for inexpensively but substantially uniformlyheating the various rooms of a compactly arranged group with circulatingair that is heated by a single burner unit.

Basically, my invention resides in the provision of an air heaterlocated within or discharging warm air directly into one of the rooms(hereafter called the primary room), a warm air receiver mountedadjacent the ceiling level of the primary room and connected by simpleducts and/ or registers with the upper parts of the other rooms, anelectric fan in the receiver for forcing air toward said other rooms andmeans for returning the cooled air to the primary room from the adjacentor outlying rooms. The last mentioned means may be doors or doorways, orit may consist of grilles or registers disposed at low level to afiordintercommunication. No connection need be made between the receiver andthe heater itself. When the fan operates, either by manual or automaticcontrol, hot air is taken from the ceiling level of the primary room anddistributed to the other rooms. At each register or discharge end of aduct provision may be made to regulate or stop the circulation by meansof a damper or the like. If the fan is stationary, or the dampers closedthe heater operates to heat only the primary room, which usually is theliving room. When heat is desired in any or all of the other rooms thefan switch is actuated and the proper dampers opened. Aside fromregulation of the heater itself to vary its output, the amounts of heatto the other rooms can be regulated by periodic stopping and starting ofthe fan, or by regulating the fan speed, or by shifting the dampers.Various obvious automatic schemes of control and regulation may beemployed, but for inexpensiveness and simplicity manual control ispreferred.

In addition to eliminating overheatingand air stratiiication in theprimary room, my improved system maintains the air in the other roomsthoroughly mixed and non-stratified by virtue of discharge of warm airunder forced draft into the upper levels thereof, and it assures anadequate ventilation of all the rooms. Means may be incorporated in theplenum chamber of the receiver, or in direct association with theheater, to control or simply increase moisture content of the circulatedair.

From the foregoing discussion, it may be seen that some of the major andsubordinate objects of the present invention are to heat a group ofrooms with a system that is low in cost, that is easily and cheaplyinstalled, that requires a minimum of useful space, that is easilyregulated and controlled, that can maintain substantially uniformtemperatures in the various rooms as well as in the various spaces ofeach room itself, and that augments the ventilation of the several roomsthrough constant circulation and recirculation.

Further important objects are to devise an improved fan and-plenumchamber unit, and to provide a novel structure for facilitatingconmotion of a desired number of distributing ducts to the plenumchamber.

The foregoing and other objects of my invention will clearly appear froma study of the fol- Y lowing detailed description when taken in con-Junction with the accompanying drawing and the appended claims.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a vertical section taken through the representation of aone-floor house equipped with one suitable embodiment of my heatingsystem.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic plan view of the arrangement seen in Fig. 1,with the roof removed and the cover of the distributing unit detached.Fig. 3 is an enlarged view, in vertical section, of the heatdistributing unit of Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 1 but disclosing a modified form ofheating system preferred for attic-less homes.

With continued reference to the drawing, where like characters areemployed to designate like parts and with particular reference for themoment to Figs. 1 and 2, there is shown a house of the type that hassmall attic space and usually no basement and comprising a floor 5,rooms 6, 1, 8, 9, l and H provided with the usual doors or doorways, aceiling I2 just below the structural joists I4 and a roof 15.

In one of the rooms-in this instance the living room 6-there is disposedat low level a space heater i6 which preferably has a top grille I! forthe upward discharge of hot 'air. This heater may be a coal stove or anyother type of hot air stove or furnace, either manually or automaticallycontrolled and operated; and it might in some circumstances be disposedin a cellar or small basement with its grille l1 flush with the floor,the principal requirement being that its heating surface be exposed tocurrents of relatively cold air drawn from the surrounding space andfrom the adjoining rooms. The most essential requirements are that theheater produce an upward draft of hot air in the same room within whichis located the face of a grille IQ of an air receiving and distributingunit 18, and that the grille face be disposed at or adjacent the ceilinglevel so as to receive the warmest air possible. In the embodiment underdiscussion, this is effected by placing the heater and the grille IS invertical alignment.

The unit l8 (see Fig. 3 also) comprises a housing 20 having animperforate cover 2| and having its other walls closed except for theopenings of the grille l9 and except for one or more lateral openingsformed in the plenum chamber adjacent the top for connection with one oras many as four conduits such as the pipes 22 and 24. Each lateralopening preferably is formed by making a circular series of disconnectedslots 25, thus providing a disc-like plate 26 that may be knocked outreadily on the Job" if it is desired to connect a pipe to thatparticular wall of the housing. As the slots are formed at the factory,and as simple conduits such as conventional stove-pipe may be used tocarry off the heated air, any home owner or unskilled workman caninstall the apparatus. The housing 20 may be of any suitable size andshape, but preferably is rectangular and designed to fit between and beattached for support to a pair of the joists l4.

Secured to and disposed within the lower part of the housing 3 there isan internal sheet metal structure 21 designed to support an electricmotor 28 and tohouse a pair of impeller type fans 28 that are carriedand driven by said motor. This parts of certain room walls.

structure opens to the grille I9 by way of large apertures 30 thatsupply warin air to the centers of thefans, and it has two top openings3| about ninety degrees in length with. respect to the fan peripheries.When the motor is rotating, air is passed under a light forced draftalong the path indicated by the arrows through the unit and into theducts 22, 24 and any others that may be needed and attached. The motoris controlled through a cable 32, and the element 34 represents either apull chain or a drop switch that may be utilized in association withsaid cable tostart and stop the motor.

Individual ducts may be extended from the unit l8 to the several rooms,or as shown the ducts 22 and 24 may have branches 35, 36 and 31, 38,respectively. The unit housing and the ducts may be covered with a sheetinsulation if desired. The discharge ends of the ducts projectdownwardly into grilles or registers 39 fitted in the ceilings of thevarious rooms, and preferably these registers include dampers under con-,venient manual control for regulating or shutting off the downward flowof warm air into the rooms. For example, a vertical rod 40 having ahandle 4! may be connected to a shiftable damper operating lever 42. Insome cases, depending upon the building construction, one or more of theconduits may be led down into the stud space or into the upper part of ahallway or the like and thence branched laterally through the upper Itis important that the ducts and their branches feed into the outlyingrooms at high levels and that means, such as doorways or returnregisters at low levels (not shown) be utilized to return the cooler airto the heater l6 for reheating and recirculation.

In operation, the hottest air from the heater passes directly to theunit l8, but substantial portions of the heat pass by convectionthroughout the primary room 6. By closing the fan switch and opening oneor more of the dampers of the registers 39 the adjacent rooms can beheated as desired. By regulating the rate of combustion in the heateritself, by controlling the fan and by regulating the damperssubstantially perfect heat control is obtained for all of the groupedrooms. Through constant circulation and recirculation, stratification ofthe air into layers of different temperature is avoided, and the roomsare kept well ventilated.

In the summer months the unit l8 may be utilized for cooling purposes.By closing all registers, removing the housing cover 2| and opening anattic window, the fans may be utilized to draw cool air into the roomsand to forcethe warmer air outwardly through the attic window. Or, byleaving the cover 2| as shown, and opening the register dampers, aconstant circulation and recirculation of air may be effected.

In Fig. 4 there is illustrated a modified type of system that isdesigned especially for use in homes that have neither an attic norsufficient space between the roof and the ceiling to permit theinstallation just described. Here a distributing unit 45, which differsfrom the'unit I8 only in the substitution of a grille or register 46 forthe imperforate cover 2 I, is mounted in horizontal position Just belowthe ceiling 41 of a house having a primary room 48 heated by the burnerIS, a hallway 49, an adjacent room 50 and several other rooms (notseen). The unit has a grille 5| corresponding to grille IQ of the unitl8, and of course is provided with the internal fan and housingstructure of the unit It, the fan motor having a suitable switch controland the grille 48 preferably having a damper or shutter controlled bythe rod 40.

The unit 45 may be decorated and attached in exposed condition to theceiling or the wall structure but preferably is concealed as shownbetween the level of the ceiling 41 and a dropped hallway ceiling 52.Its housing has knock-out plates 26 for attachment of pipes to conveywarm air to other rooms of the group. Being disposed at a high level itreceives hot air adjacent the ceiling of the primary heated room 48 anddistributes it to the upper levels of the other rooms in obvious manner,recirculation being effected by transfer of cool air to the heater [6through the open doorways.

Various further modifications may be made within the scope of myinvention. For instance, in some cases the fan and plenum chamber unitmay be installed in a wall near the ceiling and equipped with ducts thatare disposed within the stud space and projected directly through thewall to discharge into several rooms. In another case the fan unitstructure may be mounted in a side wall adjacent the ceiling to receiveair from a primary room and to discharge into a natural built-in plenumchamber such, for example, as the space provided by a drop ceiling in asmall hallway, and the ducts may branch from this plenum chamber to thevarious other rooms. Therefore, I wish to be limited, as is customary,only by a reasonably liberal interpretation of the appended claims. 1

What is claimed is:

1. In a system for heating a group of compactly associated rooms thathave a common floor level, a heater designed to discharge its entireuseful heat output at low level into a selected primary room of thegroup, a receiver embodying power-driven means disposed adjacent theceiling level to withdraw warm air from said primary room, and meansforming a plurality of ducts likewise adjacent the ceiling level forconveying the warm air under forced circulation from said receiver tothe other rooms of the group.

2. In the system defined in claim 1, said ducts having their outlet endsso disposed as to discharge into said other rooms at high levels, andthere being means permitting the flow of cool air at low levels fromsaid other rooms to said primary room.

, 3. In a group of compactly associated rooms having a substantiallycommon floor level, a

heater mounted within and designed to discharge its entire useful heatoutput at low level by convection and radiation into a selected primaryand normally occupied room of the group, a receiver disposed adjacentthe ceiling level to withdraw warm air from said primary room, aplurality of conduits disposed above said ceiling level and connectedbetween said receiver and the other rooms of the group, and means insaid receiver for starting and stopping the circulation of warm airtherethrough.

4. In the system defined in claim 3, said starting and stopping meanscomprising an electric fan disposed between the receiver intake and theinlet ends of said conduits.

5. Apparatus for heating a one-story house of the type comprisingseveral rooms having ceilings grouped below a common roof, saidapparatus comprising a space heater supported by the floor of one of therooms, a warm air receiver mounted between the ceiling level and theroof and in communication with said one room adjacent the ceilingthereof, said receiver being free of connection to said heater, aplurality of conduits connected to said receiver and disposed betweensaid roof and the ceiling level with their outlet ends arranged todischarge into the upper portions of the other rooms, and meansassociated with said receiver to force warm air into and through saidconduits. e

6. In the apparatus defined in claim 5, means for diverting the entireoutput of said receiver from said conduits and into the space betweensaid roof and the ceiling.

'7. A heating and ventilating device for dwellings comprising an airdistributing chamber having an inlet passage for communication with apre-determined room of the dwelling and a main exhaust passage, saidpassages being spaced with relation to each other, a power-driven fandisposed in the chamber between the inlet and exhaust passage, auxiliaryducts for communication with other rooms of the dwelling and enteringthechamber through the side walls thereof between the fan and the. mainexhaust passage, whereby in the open condition of the main exhaustpassage air forced by the fan will be discharged through the mainexhaust passage, and means for closing said main exhaust passage tocause the air forced by the fan to be discharged from the chamber intosaid auxiliary ducts.

MILTON A. POWERS.

